


Courting

by Maple



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Gen, Post-Quickening, Quickening, Quote Challenge, Watchers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-11
Updated: 2011-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 22:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/181866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maple/pseuds/Maple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jed went out courting the lightning and got a lot more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Courting

**Author's Note:**

> The following quote was used within the text: "Courting that lightning," he told the police, who trapped him llike a possum and put him in jail." -- from Samedi's Knapsack by Gaylord Dold.

He usually relied on his own good sense. Usually.

He knew he should have made up a story, an excuse: he was drunk, he was high, he'd been struck on the head. But he'd told the truth. "Courting that lighting," he'd told the police, who'd trapped him like a possum and put him in jail. And now he was sitting there, waiting for a psychiatric examination. Just waiting for--how did the song go--those nice young men in their nice white coats that were coming to take him away.

Jed looked up and caught the steely stare of the mirror reflecting back at him, untold numbers of people assessing him from the other side. Or maybe no one was there. Perhaps he was truly alone.

The door opened and an officer shouldered in, followed by a woman with black hair streaked with grey and swept up into a serious bun, wearing a flatteringly cut business suit. She looked at him over her glasses, then through her glasses at the papers in her hand. Vain, Jed decided and wondered if that increased or decreased his chances of being released.

The officer leaned into a corner, assuring the woman's safety with his presence, his large hands resting lightly near his belt, the gun holster ominously matte black and clipped at his hip. Jed licked his lips and drew his attention back to the woman who was now smiling at him.

"I'm Dr. Michelle Poe," she introduced herself. "I'm here so we can have a little discussion, I can make an initial evaluation and we can see where we go from there."

Jed nodded, reluctant, and the questions began--innocuous at first and then more probing. Dr. Poe softly scratched away with her pencil on her notepad, a sweeping rhythm that reminded Jed of a lullaby. The questions continued, the minutes rolling by, and no matter the subject material of the question her voice remained the same: sunny, moderated, calming.

Jed noticed the officer in the corner growing bored and restless, the officer's fingers tapping out a staccato beat on his leather belt, his eyes drooping, his gaze often roaming. The Doctor seemed to have noticed it too. She kept up her pattering of questions, only occasionally flicking a glance to the officer, estimation coming and going in her eyes. Jed wondered what it could mean that the Doctor would be so interested in allowing, even encouraging, the dull-induced stupor of the officer.

Finally, she got to the heart of the matter. "The lightning," she said, her voice the same mix of boredom and behind her the officer didn't even stir. She continued the smudge-smudge of her pencil on the notepad in front of her. Soothing, lulling.

Jed kept his voice low, a conspirator in their keeping the officer docile. Oh, yes, he was probably going to spend a long, long time going away somewhere and if he were truly wise he'd have listened to his common sense, but there was no where to go but the truth. So he told it all, keeping his voice to a droning monotone, too. He'd seen St. Elmo's fire, explosions, lightning, and felt the wind whip him around and had gone to investigate. And at the center of the maelstrom had been a man, absorbing it all and screaming. It had ended and before Jed could approach, the man had fled. He told how he'd searched the skies then, for a long time after, looking for a telltale storm, and had finally seen it and gone to it. He wanted to know--needed to know, had to talk to the man. But then he'd noticed the headless corpse and a moment later the police were there, demanding to know things from him and although they didn't think he'd done the deed, they certainly thought he was out of his mind. Jed stopped and waited for the look in her eyes that would tell him that she, too, thought he was crazy.

She only smiled, faintly. "I've a very good institution that I think you'll fit right into," she said and reached very deliberately for the cup of water in front of her, revealing a strange blue tattoo on the delicate inside of her wrist.

And Jed understood then, that the lightning had reached out and courted him right back.


End file.
